I saw an advert in Marketing Week headed “What are Google doing about the Digital Skills shortage?” That led me to read on and sign up for the squared online digital marketing course. But it seems Google are not the only company looking to address digital development.

Some of you may have seen this article already. It has been covered on the media including the BBC and USA Today and numerous tech sites. If not, meet Bo and Yana, delightful little robots that fuse play with programming for kids of all ages.

Delightful robots that fuse play with programming for kids of all ages.

A US start-up has developed a robot which can be programmed to walk and talk. The company  hopes the Play-i robot will encourage children to try coding by introducing it through play.  Talk about addressing the skills shortage early. These are aimed at kids from 5 years upwards.

It was launched as a crowdsourcing project it has (over) acheived its target but is now offering people the chance to get in early on the first products out the door.

I have thought for a long while that video should be part of my marketing repetoire but I have been put off by the simple fact I know nothing about video editing. Yes I know there is lots of simple editing software available now and  yes I know it’s good for SEO but there has to be more than video making than free software.

I have a camera but that doesn’t make me a photographer! I think it’s worth paying a professional. So when I need photography for my clients, I bring in a photographer. So the same goes for videography. I have been asked to quote for 3 video jobs this month. We can build the storyboard. Write a script and create the graphics but I need a professionals touch to bring it to life.

I attended Brighton SEO back in September and it really made me think about video again. It is a great way to get your message across. It can be fun, informative, hell you can class it as CPD and people will watch it simply so they can tick the “CPD qualifying” box on the career develpment plan. So my goal for 2014 is to do more video.

For video to work though it really has to have meaningful content. Whether that is accurate information or good advice. I like the idea of making it fun. I often see videos on Youtube that make me smile (although I’m not a great one for sharing, something I need to address) and in the age of the internet good content will get passed around.

I found this old video promoting Maxell audio tapes, cassettes. The message was sound quality, the premise very simple – mishearing the lyrics of a well known song. I am very aware that there are people on this course who will never have seen an audio tape (or even know what the soundrack from this ad is  :o ) but had Youtube been around in the 80′s I think it would have been shared. Let me know what you think. Bear in mind its old and poor quality but I think the message still works.

Here’s the video